Read Online Shooting Kabul by N. H. Senzai - Free Book Online Page A

whispering to each other in Farsi in math class, but he couldn’t get himself to walk up to them. It’s as if I don’t exist. At least the classwork didn’t look too hard. They were doing fractions in math, which he’d covered with his mother last year.
    Fadi put on his backpack, glanced at the school map on the back of his schedule, and headed toward the cafeteria. With only one wrong turn that had him doubleback, he found the beige double doors to the lunchroom. He paused for a moment and dug into the side pocket of his backpack for his lunch card. With the hard plastic rectangle hidden in his palm, he walked into the noisy sprawling space. He spotted the two Afghan kids from his math class and followed them from a distance. He grabbed a tray and got in line. The kids around him were telling one another about all the fun stuff they’d done that summer—trips to Disneyland, camping in Yosemite National Park, or swimming at the beach.
    Fadi looked at them in growing annoyance. I bet none of them ran away and lost their kid sister in the process.
    â€œWhat would you like?” asked the tired-looking woman behind the counter.
    Fadi looked at his budgeted options—cheeseburger minis with French fries or something called a “bean and cheese burrito.” The cheeseburgers he recognized. The burrito thing looked funny to him. He was still getting used to American food, and he wasn’t sure he liked a lot of it yet. Peanut butter he liked. He could eat it every day, spread over Afghan bread, with plum jam.
    â€œHurry up,” grumbled a voice behind him.
    Fadi glanced back and froze. It was the kid from homeroom. The tall one with narrow almond-shaped eyes. Ike’s friend. What was his name? Felix.
    Felix’s eyes narrowed. “What are you staring at?”
    â€œNothing,” whispered Fadi. He averted his gaze down to Felix’s flashy high-top sneakers and looked away.
    â€œI haven’t got all day,” said the woman. She adjusted her hairnet and tapped her spoon against the glass case, pointing down.
    â€œThose, please,” said Fadi, pointing to the steaming tray of burgers. In a rush he added a carton of apple juice and hurried toward the cash register.
    Before the cashier could say anything, Fadi quickly handed him the plastic card. He looked back at Felix, who, thankfully, was still deciding what he wanted. The cashier slid the card through the register and got a loud beep.
    â€œWhen did you get this?” he asked. He pulled out the card and inspected it over the rim of his glasses.
    â€œUh, this morning.”
    The man rang up the purchase again and got another loud beep. “Hold on. I need to call the office.”
    â€œTry it again, please,” pleaded Fadi. Come on, come on, work, he prayed, glancing back at Felix, who was getting a giant Coke to go with his slice of pizza from the concession stand.
    The cashier entered the numbers one more time as Fadi held his breath. The machine accepted thepurchase and spit out a receipt. “Well, what do you know,” the cashier said.
    Just as Felix plunked his tray down next to Fadi’s, the cashier handed back the card.
    Fadi pocketed it quickly and moved on with his tray, but he caught Felix’s smirk as the other boy took out his money and handed it to the cashier. His stomach sank. This isn’t good .
    The cafeteria was practically bursting at the seams. Students packed the benches, sharing stories and eating lunch. Fadi stood at the side, looking over the sea of unfamiliar faces, wondering where to sit. He cursed, wishing Zalmay had the same lunch period as him. Not finding an empty table, he walked to the back and sat on the ground next to the emergency exit. He took his apple juice and opened it as a girl with long black hair walked by. She was so busy talking to her friends that she didn’t notice that her wallet had dropped out of her tiny pink purse. Fadi picked it up